~ Pinellas County Chapter, American civil liberties union ~

Jim Peterson, Editor

Home

 

Page:

 

1.

 

2.

 

3.

 

4.

 

5.

 

6.

 

7.

 

8.

 

WE Live in troubled times.  We are in a period in which certain of the fundamental rights guaranteed in our constitution, have been abrogated by a government, that at times, finds it more convenient to rule from fear, than from respect.   If terrorists want to change us, change our way of life; we have allowed them to succeed beyond their greatest expectation. 
Not often in our existence as a people have we surrendered our rights: to a fair trial, to Habeas Corpus, to the suppression of first amendment rights, and to a host of similar assaults upon the gifts of history that have made us unique as a people and a nation.

The ACLU and your local chapter have tried to remain vigilant at all times against the contagion of indifference that presages a drift to authoritarianism and decline.  But, ultimately, it is you dear citizen who is the ultimate bulwark in the preservation of our free institutions against the storms and schemes of those who use the fact of terrorism to lay the foundation of illegitimate rule.  Join us.  JP

Marcia Cohen—Our Beckett award winner for 2007
Marcia Cohen has worked with social justice issues since she was a graduate student in Chicago in the late 1960s. While in her 20s she had two children and pursued her other love, music, receiving an MA in music composition at Northwestern University; she taught at the Art Institute of Chicago, composed music and developed a series featuring original music from new Chicago composers.

In 1981 she came to Pensacola as the director of cultural affairs. But her interest in the law led her to St. Petersburg to study at Stetson University, where she met Gardner Beckett.  “Gardener was my professor at Stetson,” said Cohen. “He was a mentor and great influence in my life.”

 

After receiving her law degree, she taught feminist jurisprudence, and earned praise for two of her most important cases involving the BayCare acquisition of Bayfront Hospital and an EEOC suit against Domino’s Pizza where a male employee maintained he was being sexually harassed by a female worker.  “I submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court for the Domino’s case, but they refused to hear the case,” said Cohen. “It had been decided in the plaintiff’s favor in the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals, but Domino’s wouldn’t let it go.”

 

Cohen is probably best known in St. Petersburg for successfully prosecuting the Bayfront Hospital case. The hospital is on city-owned property.  “When Bayfront joined BayCare they agreed to abide by Catholic ethical and religious directives for healthcare,” said Cohen. But there were objections from the ACLU of Florida, Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, National NOW and Americans United for the Separation for Church and State, plaintiffs in the case. Cohn was lead counsel on the case, with co-counsel Mark Brown. “I worked with lawyers in New York and Washington for the Bayfront case, mostly with the National Women’s Law Center in Washington,” said Cohen. Currently, Cohen maintains a residence in Paris, sings in a small café, and though not  -

CLIP

a member of the Paris bar, keeps an office in a friend’s law firm and advises people who want to do business in the U.S. She is also a speaker for the U.S. embassy. 
“I’m very honored to receive an award named for Gardner, who was my mentor, colleague and cherished friend,” said Cohen.            

 ~Nano Riley

                Opinion